Singing Tips and FAQ
(Frequently Asked Questions)

For the convenience of ALL our readers, I have decided to provide singing tips that answer the FAQ (frequently asked questions) that are probably on the back of your mind right now!

Many of these questions have come from my own private collection of questions posed to me by my students over the past 8 years or so, and this list will continue to grow as I continue to teach more students everyday!

Hopefully, this section will clear up the misconceptions that you may have about your queries about singing.

I also provide links, as and when they are relevant, to various sections of my website, so that you will be able to find an answer to your question easily and quickly.

If you have queries that you would like to be answered, send them in by using the ‘Contact Us’ form provided on this website! I will then be able to answer your questions either through email, or by answering them in this section of my website.

The singing tips that answer your FAQ are listed in the following categories for your ease of reference:

Click on the links above as they become available, and read up on the various FAQ that many of my students have asked me and continue to ask me everyday!

For those who wish to just find out what are some of the more commonly asked questions about singing, check out the singing tips below:

Question ONE:

Why do I always run out of breath when I sing?

‘Your Personal Singing Guide’ says:

There are various reasons why a singer runs out of breath during singing. Firstly, are you breathing enough? Are you taking in sufficient breath for you to control and support your voice? Check out some of the basic breathing exercises that are available to us as singers, and learn how to breathe for singing.

Secondly, are you using too much air when you sing? Check that your voice is not too airy, because this would mean that you are letting out too much air when you sing. Try to aim for a balanced sound, and you can do this by learning how to do some basic vocal warmups that teach you how to build a strong, balanced voice.

Question TWO:

Why do I always go off-key when I sing? Do I have a hearing problem?

‘Your Personal Singing Guide’ says:

Singing in tune takes a combination of skills, and also requires you to be focussed when you sing. Let me give you some singing tips here!

You would firstly need to know what pitch or key you are singing in, and what notes you need to hit. Learning about some basic pitching exercises would be good for you in this case, because they would strengthen your pitch sense, and also improve your overall ability to sing in tune.

You would also need to be able to hear when you go off-key. This means that you would have to develop a good sense of hearing, and be able to pick out pitches as you sing them, or at least, to be able to know when you are singing the wrong notes!

In this case, you would do well to try out some ear training exercises that I have provided on my website, so that you can improve on your listening ability and know when you are singing out of tune.

Lastly, you would need to know what to do when you sing off-key. Are you too high or too low for the pitch that you are supposed to sing? Knowing this will allow you to adjust your pitch accordingly and to correct your notes before your audience is able to detect that anything is out of the ordinary.

Question THREE:

Should I use my nose or my mouth to breathe when singing?

‘Your Personal Singing Guide’ says:

For pop singers, it would be best to breathe with our mouths. This is because we sometimes need to create some breathing effects in a song, and also because it is much easier to breathe with our mouths when we are singing.

However, for classical singers, it varies, and you can even argue that breathing with the nose is better because it warms up the air that you take in, before it passes over your vocal cords, so that your voice and your throat are not dried whenever you breathe in.

For amateur singers, breathing through the mouth should suffice, but here is a vital singing tip on voice care: do remember to take more water and keep your voice and throat moist if you are singing in an air-conditioned environment!

Question FOUR:

Would I able to extend my vocal range and hit higher notes, or should I be resigned to my current voice?

‘Your Personal Singing Guide’ says:

This is a difficult question to answer, because it really depends on what is preventing you from hitting the notes that you want to hit. Here are some singing tips for those who wish to find out how to extend your vocal range.

One reason why you may not be able to hit certain notes is because of the vowel of the words that you have to sing at that note. Certain vowels make it easier for us to sing high, and other vowels tend to be slightly more difficult. Learning how to adjust our diction slightly when we sing so that we can hit those notes better is certainly part of good singing training.

Another reason why you may find your vocal range limited is because you do not know how to place your voice properly. Placing your notes too low or too high results in a variety of problems when singing. This can be corrected by proper vocal placement with a good vocal coach.

One more reason is perhaps because your vocal range is just not as wide as you would wish it to be. We are all born with a certain voice, and some of us have higher voices, whereas others have lower voices. There is certainly only so much we can do to extend our vocal range, but ultimately, we have to learn to work with what we have.

It is certainly more important to know how to use what we have, and to use it well, rather than to hanker after a voice that is out of our reach! This is certainly an important singing tip for us to bear in mind.

Yes, Rhythm is certainly extremely important when we sing. In fact, it is one of the Basics of Singing, other than our Pitching, Breathing, Voice and Diction.

Having a good sense of rhythm gives our voice more punch, more attack and groove, and also allows us to be able to know when to start and stop singing, and how to be in sync with the music that we are singing to.

Let me give you a singing tip here. Do not ignore your sense of rhythm, or it will give you lots of problems in your singing training!

The Ultimate Vocal Training System is a comprehensive online training system that will provide targeted solutions to vocal problems that you are facing, allowing you to sing higher in your vocal range, avoid sore throats or vocal swellingafter a long night of singing, and avoid embarrassing vocal breaks or cracks in the range!

This comprehensive vocal training system is divided into a total of 10 Modules consisting of 80+ training videos and other pdf resources, covering topics like breath and voice production, vocal folds and how they work, voice projection and a simple trick that will give you more singing power, as well as pitching and aural awareness training too!